Trying to negotiate a group rate for RBC LOC?

[Guest davidubc]

If you have been accepted to UBC set up an appointment with the bank.

 

Bring your acceptance letter. The Royal Bank of Canada has a special program only for medical students who are attending a medical school in Canada.

 

No banking fees which means no monthly fee, no money order or traveller check fees etc!

 

I just got a line of credit for 160K at prime as well.

 

 

 

 

I edited the title, and will move this thread out of the UBC forum into the Med School Orientation 101 forum. Hopefully, this may give you an increased audience for those people currently looking to try to negotiate for a prime - 1 interest rate on your LOC! -Ian

[Guest kanayo101]

I was just on their website browsing and found a scholarship all you lucky ducks can apply for

 

www.rbcroyalbank.com/stud...rship.html

[Guest physiology]

Here's the MD Management/National bank of Canada -

doesn't look as good as the RBC one.

 

mdm.ca/content/md/solutio...sident.pdf

 

Just a thought, couldn't a few of us from this forum band together and offer the banks our business, provided that they give us prime minus 0.5% (like Desjardins in Quebec) and significant reduction or elimination of the life insurance fees?

 

I mean, let's say, twenty of us decided to go through RBC, and all at the same branch, wouldn't this be very attractive?

 

Anyway, I'm just looking to save some money!

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there physiology,

 

I mean, let's say, twenty of us decided to go through RBC, and all at the same branch, wouldn't this be very attractive?

This is a great idea, and one which the banks may have a very tough time passing up. In fact, if you do manage to round up 20 students, I'd start the negotiations at prime minus 1.0% and aim for no less than prime minus 0.75%. After all, you're saving them legwork by bringing a horde of very attractive, debt-needy folks, and given that Desjardins are offering prime minus 0.5%, from RBC's point of view, i.e., explaining the situation to a regional bank manager, it would be reasonable to have to offer the extra 0.25% to lure you away from the competitors.

 

Is anyone willing to join in on an RBC LOC coalition in the Toronto area (since LOCs are completely transferrable and it should not make too much, if any, difference where you actually end up going to school in September)?

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest ubcpharmer]

Physiology i would be definately interested. I have sent you a message in your ezinbox

[Guest Kels2004]

Hi guys,

Great idea... I would like to be involved, although I am currently in England. Will they set up an LOC from afar if we fax in info, or do we have to be physically present? I finish work here mid July, so planned to set up the LOC when i return to Alberta then.

 

Keep us posted on the negotiations!

 

Kels

[Guest lex]

I'd definitely be interested in doing this. I'm assuming that most of us are in BC?

 

The rep that handles this in Vancouver is George Tsonis

(604) 668-4300 Broadway & Cambie Branch

george.tsonis@rbc.com

 

I write this because it may be useful to set something like this up at home to establish a working relationship with the rep.

 

I believe that it already made its way to this area but bc's loc chart is:

 

www.med.ubc.ca/md/financi...ce/LOC.htm

 

It's also in the financial planning book that came with the UBC package.

[Guest sehender]

Hey Guys,

 

I am in the Vancouver area and I would be happy to join the group of people planning on gathering together to apply for a LOC that is below prime.

 

I went and talked to Rosemary McCruchton (I think that's how you spell it), the financial advisor for UBC students. She said to apply for a LOC later on in the summer when we have official statements declaring that we are UBC medical students (the official statements will be coming in our registration packages).

 

Would anyone else like to join us? I guess we'll need about 20 like the others have suggested...

[Guest Miller]

I sent you a message physiology. I think getting together as a group is a great idea. As I mentioned in the message, the more students we have the more leverage we can use. So it would be worth trying to contact UBC and see if they would be willing to send out an email to the incoming class. It could only help us all so why wouldn't they do it.

[Guest Ian Wong]

I'll move this thread out of the UBC forum into the Med School Orientation 101 forum. Hopefully, this may give you an increased audience for those people currently looking to try to negotiate for a prime - 1 interest rate on your LOC!

 

Good luck! This would be a sweet deal if you guys could make it happen.

 

Ian

[Guest physiology]

Hello Everyone,

 

Thanks for all the support! I've gotten private messages from some of you.

 

I was thinking I would ask the financial services planner who works for the faculty (as per Miller's suggestion) and ask her to help in coordinating this.

 

In light of my age and inexperience in financial matters, I'm sure she has more credibility than me, unless all 200 of us were willing to show up at one RBC branch (with pickets, threats of hunger strikes, and bullhorns?..haha)

 

Another great idea was emailing this suggestion to all 200 of us to reinforce the "strength in numbers" concept. We also have interested people from other Canadian med schools (ie Kirsteen). By the way, thanks for the great tips Kirsteen. This is great!

 

So I'm going to start with the finance worker by calling her ASAP on Monday.

 

I'll keep you posted.

[Guest 4EverRose]

Great idea physiology. Count me in too!

 

I know Rosemary McCutcheon from UBC Med is going to host a financial assistance seminar on June 15, from 5 to 6 pm at B Hall, 2773 Heather St. (next week she is going to send an notification to those got accepted about this) How about we bring this up during the seminar?

[Guest Novoulmi]

Hey physiology

 

I'm currently in victoria, and will be attending the island program. I'm really interested in this group rate dealy-o and was wondering if it will be feasable for those not situated in Van City to get in on this. If it seem possible, count me in.

 

Novo

[Guest Ciara]

Hi there -

 

I think this is a great idea! I'm in Toronto right now, but my parents are in Vancouver so I guess either spot works for me.

 

Has anyone approached credit unions about med student LOC's - like Vancity in BC or Metro Credit Union out here? Because I think Desjardins is a credit union. (Although I'm not actually sure how they are different from a regular bank..) Well - maybe I'll check some out and report back. But count me in!

 

Ciara

[Guest physiology]

I just talked to Rosemary McCutcheon. There's bad news on the horizon.

 

Unfortunately, these LOCs have been negotiated by the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) and thus, they have made a lot of leeway in terms of perks and benefits.

 

Because individual bank managers and even branches themselves do NOT have the power to change interest rates, all requests would have to go through head office. Furthermore, most managers won't even bother sending requests to the head office unless they're reasonable.

 

As such, a prime-1% is a long-shot and any changes to these LOCs would have to be negotiated through CFMS and would be at least a year in the making.

 

In terms of life insurance, banks may be willing to scrap that if you have guarantor.

 

I talked about the "strength in numbers" we may have and still, that would be insufficient in getting the banks to budge.

 

I've also contacted two credit unions, Coast Capital Savings to no avail and currently waiting on a call-back from Van City.

 

So with what we have now, I think RBC or MD Management is the way to go. Which appeals to people more?

 

BTW, Rosemary McCutcheon is organizing a seminar on our behalf. The office is supposed to send it out this week but here are the preliminary details:

 

June 15th - 5-6 pm at the VGH B-Hall.

 

This is the SAME stuffy, incommodious location in which we had our orientation.

 

Anyway, that's the gist of it. I asked her to bring this up at the seminar as well.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Great work, physiology!

 

Because individual bank managers and even branches themselves do NOT have the power to change interest rates, all requests would have to go through head office. Furthermore, most managers won't even bother sending requests to the head office unless they're reasonable.

Unless something has changed drastically, bank managers have a good deal of latitude in offering lower interest rates. I guess the key is how each manager defines, "reasonable".

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest lex]

A couple of posters in the dental students forum mentioned that they were able to negotiate a payment interest rate (when the LOC gets converted into a personal loan) of prime. Others stated that they would be paying above prime after the prime accrual rate during dental school. Like those for med students, these LOC's would have likely been negotiated by a student's federation as the programs are offered institutionally.

 

I noticed that the rate during the payment period is not listed on the UBC LOC summary sheet. So, maybe this was not included in the initial negotiation? If so, this could be an area to exploit.

[Guest Guyver03]

these LOC's would have likely been negotiated by a student's federation as the programs are offered institutionally.

 

Well Lex, I'm not sure if you mean that dental students have to rely on student's federation to bargain for prime rate after gradutaion instead of prime + some %. But I just called Scotia bank and told them I'm starting dental school, and they immediately said I would get prime rate during school and after graduation, no conditions.

[Guest physiology]

Hello Everyone,

 

After I told Vancity I didn't own a home, the conversation pretty much went downhill

 

Anyway, don't bother with Vancity.

[Guest lex]

I wasn't saying that dental students had to rely on a students advocacy group for prime +0% after grad, just the opposite. Some dental students were getting it and some weren't. Thus, I assumed that the dental LOC's were prenegotiated (as with med students) but, because of the discrepancy between LOC applicants, that the loan conversion was not.

 

Additionally post-grad loan rates weren't specifically listed on the med line-of-credit summary sheet handed out by UBC so I was wondering whether post-grad rates vary across lending institutions.

[Guest Guyver03]

Hey Lex, some banks do have different post-grad rate, like BMO has a prime + 0.5% on their website, but I'm sure that's negotiable. I think depump, another starting dental student from Calgary, actually got prime + 0.5% on both pre and post-grad from Scotia bank, whereas I got prime on both pre and post-grad from Scotia bank here in Vancouver. I guess the thing is to push for prime + 0%, use other banks' offers as leverage. Of course for Scotia bank, you have to pay a monthly fee of $3 for the bank account, while RBC, I think, doesn't charge that. Check out the dental forum if you have time.

[Guest lex]

Yeah, CIBC's goes up to prime +1% after PGY1. Makes a significant difference. So, anyone who didn't get it should think about going back into to renegotiate. You can always switch banks.

[Guest physiology]

So, it's final. I met with George Tsonis at the Royal Bank, and it's firm, that there's NO leeway on the prime rate.

 

Apparently, he recognized me as the ring leader and asked if I was the one that had started all this discussion on negotiating for less than prime. I was slightly embarrassed

 

Anyway, right now, prime is at 3.75%. However, prime interest rates are set by the Bank of Canada and depend on the economy. George pulled up these scary files that showed prime was 18% in the early 80s. Lots of people lost their houses due to the insane mortgage payments!

 

I had life insurance tacked on because I don't want to put up my parents as co-signers. It's 12 cents/$1000 borrowed. What else...I get a Student Price Card (remember those from high school?), 12 free bank drafts, an account with 25 free transactions and no minimum balance or monthly fee.

 

They also give you this neat CD with all this scholarship info. However, under the UBC section, only ONE scholarship is offered! Anyway, I think the UBC awards are given out by the office and individual applications are not required.

 

It's prime during residency and probably fellowship. Although fellowship has to be negotiated on a case by case basis. I even gave him the example of "What if I decide to go into pediatric neurosurgery, which would be 4 years of med school, 6 years residency, and 1-2 years of fellowship? (11-12 years total)?" He still said that you could probably expect repayment a year following the fellowship and interest would be at prime.

 

Fellowship is a continuation of the education process and therefore is treated like residency.

 

Basically, he mentioned that the loan is "too good to be true" because they want to keep us as loyal customers in the future due to our potentially high income and the fact that we may need RBC for business loans to buy equipment or start up our own practices.

 

By the way, they can recall the LOC if you fail to pay the interest, go bankrupt/insolvent, or if the bank goes bellyup.

 

If you have any questions, feel free to private me or post here.

[Guest lex]

Just a word of advice. It doesn't matter what is claimed if it isn't in writing. It's nice that the rule of thumb is prime, but really, an oral statement means absolutely nothing 9 years from now when it really matters.

 

Physiol - the 80's were indeed pretty crazy. I know some people that had mortgages as high as 21.5%. Pretty crippling.

 

L

[Guest DonaldKaufman]

Physiology,

 

Can you get life insurance with a private company instead of RBC, and still not have to use a co-signer?

Is the 3.75% a floating rate, or is it 'locked in' at that rate for the length of your LOC?

Can you symbolically hand back the Student "Value" Card ? (they're just an advertising ploy used to increase a company's market share and profit margin - if they didn't do that, they wouldn't offer them)

 

The RBC LOC sounds like a pretty good deal though!

Thanks for doing all of this legwork, and thanls for posting all of this info in the forum.

 

-DK